By Michael Horan | Special to The Michigan Catholic
Detroit -- Ann Arbor Fr. Gabriel Richard’s senior catcher Conor Dishman came up to bat in the bottom of the seventh inning determined to figure out Bishop Foley’s pitcher Daniel Zuchowski.
“I was thinking, he fooled me earlier on a couple curve balls,” Dishman said. “I knew he was going to miss his spot and he made a mistake and I hit it.”
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With a runner at second, Dishman cranked single up the middle bringing home senior outfielder Dennis Olszewski to win the C-D Division Catholic League Championship for Fr. Gabriel Richard, 3-2, over Bishop Foley.
“It felt great, it felt great off the bat,” Dishman said. “It just feels really good.”
The Fighting Irish blew a 2-1 lead with two outs in the top of the seventh inning when Foley senior first baseman Jeff Schalk clipped a hit into the infield to the Fr. Gabriel Richard second baseman, who fumbled the ball, bringing Zuchowski home from third base tying the game at 2-2.
In the bottom of the seventh with the tie scored, senior outfielder J.P Kelly hit an infield single to start the rally. Olszewski then hit into a double-play attempt, but beat out the throw to first.
“We just told them to stick with the game,” Lenhoff said. “We’d been hitting the ball all day of him, sooner or later one had to fall in.”
Dishman answered his coach’s call driving home the winning run.
“We just told Conor to stay off bad pitches, he gets a little anxious once in a while and swings at balls off the plate,” Lenhoff said. “We just told him to stay on a good fastball and hit it hard. I was kind of surprised they pitched to him.”
Foley took an early 1-0 lead in the third inning when Zuchowski scored off of a wild throw to third base and had an opportunity to blow open the game in the second inning when junior pitche Chris Ostrowski walked three batters with one out in the second inning, but was able to strikeout the next two batters to end the threat and the inning.
Fr. Gabriel Richard answered back in the fourth inning.
To start the fourth, senior outfielder Dennis Olszewski was hit by a pitch. Dishman followed up with a grounder and was able to beat out the throw from the Bishop Foley shortstop. Senior second baseman Matt Wagner bunted into a fielder’s choice, but the throw to second was not in time.
With the bases loaded senior shortstop Nolan Breymaier then hit a single into the gap to left scoring to two runs, putting the Fighting Irish up 2-1.
“These kids fight all year long,” Fr. Gabriel Richard head coach Greg Lenhoff said. “We were going to play good defense, it was just a matter of time before we could get some runners on base and knock them in.”
Foley threatened to tie the game in the fifth after Zuchowski hit a long ground-rule double into center and senior catcher Brett Sunde hit a liner to right to advance Zuchowski to third, but junior pitcher Chris Ostrowski was able to pitch out of the jam getting the next two batters out.
Dishman went 2-for-3 with the game-winning RBI and Ostrowski pitched a complete game with 11 strikeouts for Richard (25-4). Zuchowski pitched a complete game and went 2-for-2 for Foley (25-4).
“We came in, they beat us three times this year, so they had a little edge on us, but we weren’t to worried,” Dishman said. “We were confident in our team and we worked hard, it all worked out.”
